Week 4 - Henri Lefebvre 'The Production of Space'

In ‘After Life’ Lefebvre tries to make sense of the complexity of the capitalist contemporary city and attempts to define a “unitary theory of space”. In Chapter 2 he focuses on social space and his idea is that there are multitudes of spaces which all overlap on each other. He has the idea that absolute space is nowhere and has no place because it holds all places and has a symbolic existence. 

My understanding is that social space is the analysis of everyday life and the urban reality. It is the beginning of space where basic needs are met and political space grows. Then the political space, religious space become bonded in an absolute space which holds them together. His idea tha everyday life has been capitalized and as a result so has the location of everyday life. i.e. the ‘social space’. 

Then when he goes on to talk about social space which is a social product which takes mental space and physical space to bring them together as a social space. This social space holds the actions of people, the thoughts, people grow in this space, they suffer and eventually they die. Lefebvre seems to think that his idea of social space has no boundaries. 

Does Lefebvre sees space as a form of power? I think so. He talks about the social space being a social product so then the space produced is a production where new space is created which then becomes where powers and control lays. He also talks about the split between professionals when dealing within the space of a city particularly mentions Venice. Where the macro and micro levels within the space of the city have allowed it to improve, change and grow.

He talks about nature that it does not produce because it does not labour. It doesn't know what its doing, it just does!. People do produce though because they do labour and they do know what they are doing. Its on these social spaces the natures doesn't produce and people do produce which give us the production of daily life. 

I particularly like his idea of horizontal space meaning submission, I took that to be residential types of housing where we are just going about our daily life. Vertical space being about power which holds try for the skyscrapers when business is conducted and the decisions to affect a national are made and subterranean space meaning death. A graveyard is underground… Underground is dark, its cold and all live is held out. 

I think I like some of his ideas and themes but as he jumps around I’m not sure I followed him completely. He seems to constantly be creating spaces out of space so it was difficult to keep track of all these spaces. Interesting read but it should come with a warning that your brain might end up disorientated and lost in another space to one you started in!